Do wonder drugs really exist?

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Alternative medicines thrive on "hopelessness"

Let us recall my brave HIV positive patient discussed in the following story:

http://rendezvous-doctorsblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/man-versus-virus-story-of-brave-aids.html

This lady had CMV retinitis an opportunistic infection of the eye. She had been seen by us in Chennai and was heading towards Trivandrum in 1995. She had heard of a "miraculous cure" that involved some heavy metals for HIV and AIDS that turns a patient negative on an ELISA test for the HIV virus.

I am not sure she planned to go to this chap out of firm conviction or simple helplessness. There was nothing she would loose by that trip, she must have thought.

My consultant told her, there was no way, one could be free from virus by using such wonder drugs. After she had left, he asked me if I could think of any way, one would have a negative ELISA test that has been positive earlier. We had no information if the lady implied a negative "western blot test" as well.

There was one way, I thought the result of ELISA could be skewed if a heavy metal could break the disulphide bridges in the immunoglobulin molecules that hold the heavy and light chains together!

We do not know what happened to the lady and her HIV tests subsequently. In all probabilities she is not alive today as she already had a full blown AIDS then.

But of course, had the miraculous drug worked the "doctor" (read quack) and his centre would be famous the world over by now!

These kind of terminally ill patients fall prey to all kind of gimmicks. Unlike the patients who have good medical prognosis (and who survive) these patients have been adequately "counselled" to understand their predicament. They would never sue the quack... nor would their relatives in case they do not survive themselves.

The duration of treatment of these ailments also tends to be prolonged. So there is an ample scope to mint money through them.

Did you hear of the wonder drugs prescribed by a quack (now in jail) in Rishikesh, India, who claimed to have found a cure for epilepsy?

He is behind bar now.

That is the logical conclusion of these stories, but we seldom get to hear this as there is no way to bring them to justice in most cases.

However a dental college owned by this thug still runs.

Moral of the story:

Suspect anything practised stealthily by people who make tall claims!

The original question: Do wonder drugs really exist?

Yes, chloroquine was once a wonder drug when initially discovered and when malaria was rampant.

Penicillin the first antibiotic to be discovered was since there were no effective ways to combat infections in the pre antibiotic era!

Arthur Ashe's memorable quote

“If I were to say 'God, why me?' about the bad things, then I should have said 'God, why me?' about the good things that happened in my life."


Dear readers,

A fellow ophthalmologist just mailed me an information (the above quote) about Arthur Ashe, the tennis player who died of AIDS. It seems there are many people with a rationalist attitude about their illnesses. Arthur Ashe clearly lived what some would not imagine!

Goodbye!

Man versus virus: Story of a brave AIDS patient

To

Those close ones who taught me medicine in a way my medical text books and lectures didn’t.

Dear little one,

What worries us most is the manner we would have to answer questions that have probably already begun to baffle your young mind.

Howsoever young we might be, perhaps all of us have “a little Buddha” inside us eager to find out the ways of nature. I am not sure, how we will answer all your questions of this kind in future, but let me today tell you a story of a middle aged lady who literally allowed her body to be used as a clinical learning tool for medics:

The brave Uzma

This lady we are talking of, was wife of a deceased diplomat from some middle-east country. The diplomat, once posted in India, had died of some opportunistic infection with AIDS, and had passed on his infection to his wife.
Uzma as I would prefer to call her was the most amazing AIDS patient I have seen till date. She had an ocular infection with a virus called ‘cytomegalovirus’ seen in an advanced stage of AIDS.
We were around three or four fellows and two students with our consultant. One by one we took turn to peep into her eyes. She had no vision and thus had no clue as to how many prospective examiners were there to see her.
Each examiner would take 5-8 minutes for a proper view. Soon everyone else had finished. I was the one who had to complete her medical records, thus I was required to spend maximum time with her.
Unaware I was the next one in the queue, she assumed a sitting posture on her couch.
It was now that I requested her to lie down again for a while.
“Madam, would you please lie down again for a while…”, I said.
“Oh, so one more is there”, she said and gently lied down again.
Throughout next ten minutes or fifteen, there was no protest, no anxiety or impatience. It was like I was examining a plaster of Paris model. Her serenity was extra ordinary.
She was lively and yet quiet and composed.
I realized that despite her advanced illness and visual handicap, she was still a very confidant lady – someone in total control of her emotions. After her examination, she thanked me and got up from the couch.
While so many of us tend to “absolutize” our minor illnesses as trivial as recurrent cold, here was a lady who had a clear understanding of her problem but refused to be “written off” by life that was all set to defeat her.
Let us salute the lady who has since deceased. I owe my practical education on AIDS to patients such as these.
More stories next time!
Until then,
Goodbye!